“Vrhnika’s Eleventh School” – an Institution of Respectable Age but Poor Reputation

Following the traces of an old satirical saying from Carniola whose name and Vrhnika’s honour were saved by Cankar

Abstract

The article was the result of the discovery of an archival document that mentions the caustic gibe saying Vrhnika’s Eleventh School as early as 1744. Subsequent research showed the phrase to be very old, and that it entered Slovene lexicography in the 19th century and soon underwent a complete modification in its meaning. Slovenia’s greatest writer, Ivan Cankar (1876-1918), himself from Vrhnika, in a literary work in 1914 deprived the scathing remark of its mocking tone, which was directed at the pride and ignorance of the people of Vrhnika. In his usage, the phrase referred to the “acquisition of life experience by children outside school and family«, which became its standard meaning in Slovene phraseology, while its original mocking tone slipped into oblivion. The original meaning of the phrase Eleventh School is connected with the past names of grades in regular school, the eleventh grade being the “highest”, even though nonexistent. The reason for the oral tradition’s associating it specifically with Vrhnika could be twofold: either because of a stereotype about the conceited people of Vrhnika, or because of some actual but forgotten comical event. The only known analogy of Vrhnika’s Eleventh School is the so-called “High School” in the country town of Gablitz near Vienna.